Speaking on the BBC24 news channel today (Dateline London) Johann Hari, who writes for the (London) Independent, Huffington Post etc, claimed that in 1981 Ratzinger had ordered that a veil of strict secrecy was to be drawn over all church inquiries into child abuse. I thought he was perhaps overstating the case a little, but an internet search quickly produced evidence to support Hari's assertion:

Confidential letter reveals Ratzinger ordered bishops to keep allegations secret

This might explain a matter that puzzled Penny S earlier in the thread: namely what was significant about Ratzinger having child rape classified as an offence in "church law" when it was already an offence under the criminal codes of most countries in the world. It would seem that the catholic church was indeed firmly (and as it has turned out, fatally) committed to keeping all matters concerning its criminal priests securely in-house.

Today there is dismay in Dublin that the worldwide leader of the Anglican Communion said this morning that the catholic church in Ireland had lost all credibility.(BBC report) The archbishop of Dublin does seem to have been a heroic exception with his strident criticisms of how some of his colleagues have responded to the crisis. But it is hard to see how the archbishop of Canterbury, or anyone else outside the catholic church, could take any other line when the lamentable performance of Brady and Co has brought such sharp dissent even from within (as further evidenced in Peter Laban's link to the Irish Times take on a post-Catholic Ireland).

Like Jim Carroll, I cannot for the life of me see what Ake is railing against in that paragraph he posted from one of Joe's links.